Solidarity 109, 5 April 2007

The recent anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade has prompted debate about lessons for today. One lesson is that formal, legal reforms will never bring about full equality under capitalism. Two hundred years on racism in Britain tragically continues to thrive; it is continually being reshaped by capitalist imperatives and bourgeois political concerns. It is a multi-faceted thing, taking economic, political, social and cultural forms. It is experienced on a daily basis by black and minority ethnic people in a variety of areas, including employment, public services, the law and...

The Guardian recently published an edited version of a letter from a number of Socialist Teachers’ Association activists. They had responded to new advice issued by the DfES about school uniform. This advice, which is available to read and respond to on the DfES website, draws partly on the decision in March 2006 by the Lords of Appeal to overturn an earlier decision in the legal dispute between Shabina Begum and her school (over whether or not she could wear the jilbab, a long gown). Briefly, the Lords of Appeal decided that the right to hold a religious belief was absolute, but the right to...

I was disappointed that Solidarity chose to publish Maria Exall’s article “Faith, Homophobia and Human Rights” (Solidarity 3/107). The article reports in a positive light a conference that seems to have been the initiative of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement and was a lash up between the Gay Police Association, various religious organisations and some TUC bureaucrats. The article describes the strategy of the conference as “writing to a large number of faith and public bodies, including the newly formed Commission for Equality and Human Rights, to draw their attention to the wishes of...

Occasionally you find something in the “left” press which is so bad it makes you sit up, blink and wonder if you’ve read it correctly. Even by the usual low standards of the Morning Star, its 22 March article on the House of Lords was astonishing. In Solidarity 3/108, we wrote: “About the only thing more ridiculous than the old House of Lords is the bizarre complication of the schemes to replace it. “In fact there should be no Lords. No House of Lords at all. No second chamber. “No trade union would have two executive committees, one to “vet” the other. No workforce would choose to have two...

Jill Mountford reviews Rough Crossing: Britain, Slaves and the American Revolution by Simon Schama This book should carry, alongside the blurb and excerpts from reviews, a health warning: this book will affect your breathing and heart rate. Rough Crossing is a rousing account of the struggle waged by black Americans in their fight for freedom in the 18th century. Schama is a conservative, whose serious books include one rubbishing the French revolution. Here, though, he tells a great story vividly, full of interesting facts hardly otherwise mentioned in history. He illustrates and illuminates...

Joe Stevens reviews Uncomfortable Truths — the shadow of slave trading on contemporary art and design at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London The uncomfortable truth is this is hardly an exhibition, especially when compared to the bizarre acre of museum space in the main room of the V&A given over to Kylie, a pop star! For anyone remotely political it’s nigh-on impossible not to do a compare and contrast exercise and I suppose, therefore, be somewhat distracted from an already disparate series of works by eleven black artists. The works include video, sculpture, painting and poetry, and have...

Cathy Nugent reviews Child Slavery, BBC2 What did Tony Blair et al do to mark the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade? Apart from trying very hard to avoid using that five letter word beginning in s? They paid a bit of lip service to the plight of modern day slaves, the 12 million people worldwide who are coerced into work. No concrete policy was proposed; it was enough to talk vaguely of “progress being made”. Unless you count New Labour’s removal from migrant domestic workers of the right to change their employer and thus escape exploitation and abuse. Rageh Omaar took up the...

From Falah Alwan, president of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions of Iraq The occupation troops and their allies, and the militias, have driven society into a sectarian war. They have also confiscated the most basic liberties. The regional powers have put their resources at the disposal of the armed groups and powers who represent their interests in Iraq, thereby turning... living and working places into battlefields of a destructive reactionary war... The workers of Iraq have taken their position against the occupation and the current situation through demonstrations and protests...

by paddy dollard The Arab League has offered to make peace with Israel on certain conditions, and Israel has responded with the proposal of a conference of Israel and the Arab states to discuss the Arab League proposal. Does this give grounds for hope for progress towards peace and the setting-up of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel? Probably not. The well-known cynical definition of diplomacy is that a diplomat is one who “lies abroad for his country”. Therefore you can’t judge anything by what the diplomats say. With Israeli and Arab diplomats and governments talking about...

Up to 40,000 nurses began a work-to-rule in Irish hospitals on 2 April as part of their fight over pay and hours — and said they will escalate their action if their demands are not met. The Irish Nurses Organisation and the Psychiatric Nurses Association launched the work-to-rule — which will mean, for instance, nurses refusing to answer phones, input medical records or attend meetings not about patient welfare — after talks with management broke down on 1 April. Their members will continue to provide normal direct care to patients. The nurses are demanding a reduction in their working week...